After summer came fall. Mordred's stay in the city of Roa extended to more than 4 months.
It was said that autumn was the most beautiful season in the Fitoa region because of the extensive swaths of Asuran wheat.
Mordred wanted to limit his outside activity, but he had a feeling that he should experience this sight because he might not have the chance in the future.
But before that, it was important to note Eris's progress.
In terms of her progress in the gym, she was clearly improving and as a 8 year old already surpassed many adults. By pure estimate, she was able to lift more than 100 kg from the ground for reps. She certainly had talent as a warrior.
To awaken Battle Aura, it was probably still a long way for her, but Mordred felt that things were going in the right direction.
In terms of Magic, Eris learned how to cast Elementary rank Fireball while skipping the first verse after a full month of practice. After that, it took her three weeks to get it down to just the spell's name, and from this only a few days to learn how to do it completely silently.
In the end, Eris grasped Silent Casting after just two months, despite possessing an average talent for Magic!
After Philip had learned that his daughter managed something like that, he was amazed.
Sauros also praised Mordred without end, as well as Eris - for being such a genius.
Mordred felt that it was an amazing result but Eris's stubborn and insistent practice was also a factor.
In the first place, Eris grasping Silent Magic was not something that happened in canon. It was probably because Rudeus began teaching her this too late, after she was already 10 years old.
Mordred wanted Eris to at least learn a few silent Elementary ranked spells that would be the most useful to her in life, like to create water or to light up a fire, and then focus on making her learn silent Elementary rank Healing Magic and Detoxification magic that would be best in supporting her as a swordsman.
If she managed this much, he would be satisfied.
At the same time, like Rudeus in the novel, Mordred took advantage of Ghislaine's adventuring stories and the difficulties she faced because she couldn't count and fully convinced Eris to begin learning arithmetics.
There was also an update on Thomas.
Mordred questioned Philip about it and from the investigation it turned out that Thomans was selling the information on the Boreas to Darius Silva, the Prime Minister of the Asura Kingdom, being tempted by earning some money on the side.
This was interesting because the Boreas family actually supported the faction of the First Prince Grabell, which Darius also supported. This meant that there was not much damage to the Boreas family and it was only the Prime Minister who seemed to have planted rats in various major families and who wished to control all information.
The Boreas didn't care too much, but Mordred knew much more about Darius. Naturally – that he was a disgusting child-raping pervert, a corrupt man and an apostle of Hitogami.
Through Darius, Hitogami had access to all kinds of information about what's happening in the entire Asura Kingdom. If Hitogami was not observing Mordred's father currently, who gave him complete control over the entire Kingdragon Kingdom, then he might be with Darius, who's also a powerful pawn.
For now, Mordred could only let Darius be.
As for Hitogami himself, the orb over Roa was still there.
Mordred remained in Roa despite the danger of it.
He was somewhat afraid that the Teleportation Accident could occur at any time, because he was definitely changing the world's Fate and accelerating things, but he was less afraid of it than of running into Hitogami before he grew up.
One of those days, Albion asked him, [Boss, why won't you fly up to that Perugius guy to try to solve it in advance? I know you've been thinking about it.]
'It's because... I'm afraid that if I attempted it, I would do something that would set the course of Fate in a completely new direction, accelerate the Mana Calamity and only make it erupt when I'm not prepared… So I would rather not risk it. It isn't worth it.'
[Mmm... It is too complicated for me, so I'll trust you, Boss!]
From what Albion could tell, Mordred was confident in managing wherever he ended up being thrown, that's why he stayed in Roa. The priority was to not have that Hitogami god discover and find them prematurely.
And that's exactly what Mordred thought.
As for other people, he mostly did not care.
As for those he did care about, he had to put trust in Fate.
No matter what, he felt there should at least be a chance for him to save the people who are close to him and whose Fate is closely linked to his own. It's because he was too strong and abnormal; his Fate was surely powerful and he even had Albion!
In this world, Fate is an important aspect of everything that's happening. Teleportation during the incident was not random. It appeared to depend on people's Fate.
In the case of Eris, he'd just take her away with him.
If it fails, Eris's Fate, for once, seemed to be to survive to assist Ariel in the royal selection with Luke, so she'd most likely be fine. She did not die in the usual timelines, so she wouldn't be thrown to her death here like some others.
Furthermore, with the rate of his growth, Hitogami could only try to kill him directly or hope to make Mordred and Orsted kill each other, ruining their cooperation. This was probably the only way he could win.
For this reason, Hitogami doing anything like targeting his allies, while it might amuse him, would not benefit him in the slightest and only be detrimental, Mordred hoped.
As for any countermeasures like locating devices that he could give others, no such things existed in this world. It was impossible to make those either. On the other hand, mass evacuation would affect so many people, it's likely to trigger the Mana Calamity on the spot.
And in truth, Mordred didn't even care if people died here, as long as him and Eris were fine. There was nothing he can do, so he'll just take care of himself.
People die all the time, what is the big deal?
He didn't want Philip, Ghislaine and a few others he liked to get hurt, but he could only take care of himself while wishing others good luck.
As for Hitogami, Mordred was actually getting bored. It was crazy, but he was honestly looking for a challenge!
…
One day while Eris had her daily lessons, Mordred leaped into the air after his morning Sword God Style practice and flew to visit the Buena village for the first time in a few months.
""Your Highness.""
Rudeus and Sylphy could be found once again below the large tree. They looked surprised and pleased to meet him again, bowing with respect like always.
"Hey. It's been a while." Mordred slightly smiled.
"Yes, it has been." Rudeus smiled.
If it was his first life, he would have been extremely jealous of a guy like Mordred and would have talked crap about him. But it was perhaps because he had so much anger inside himself…
Instead, Rudeus began to think of Mordred as his first real male friend in this world, and in a long while. Although rather than friends, they were more like a boss and a subordinate…
After his simple greeting, Mordred turned to look down the hill, on the swaths of golden wheat.
Below a gentle autumn sun, with air slightly cold, and crispy sweet…
"Fittoa really is beautiful during fall…" Mordred let out a breath as he looked at this wonderful scenery of his new fantasy world.
He would have no appreciation for something like this in the first life, but it was perhaps because he was so full of anger and disappointment toward living.
This scene also made him want to write a song, giving him certain inspiration.
Truth be told, he was highly enticed to begin learning how to play the lute, but he simply couldn't spare the time for it.
Currently, it was all sword practice for him for most of the day. Most of it solo training.
Over time, his raw strength and speed was improving rapidly, so he didn't want to get distracted.
While Mordred had these thoughts, Rudeus observed him with a curious expression and then also looked at the fields of wheat.
'Eh… I didn't really notice before, but it is beautiful...' Rudeus also suddenly became slightly amazed.
In the first life he did not care about things like the beauty of nature at all and even scoffed at people who wasted their money to travel the world to see things they had on TV. Strangely, perhaps he learned to appreciate it…
'Eh, not really. Nature is all nice, but cute girls are still the best!' Rudeus thought.
Mordred turned around and noticed a perverted grin on Rudeus's face. He forced himself to ignore it, saying, "... How have you been?"
"Oh, we've been well. Sylphy learned how to use the Magic Interrupt too and we've been practicing."
"That's amazing!" Mordred sent Sylphiette a small smile, which made her turn slightly meek and embarrassed.
However, this time Sylphiette grabbed Rudeus's hand while blushing and Rudeus didn't seem as insecure.
It appeared to Mordred as if his appearance in this world might have made the two grow closer ahead of time.
"Prince Mordred, there's something that I wanted to ask you…" Rudeus began timidly.
"Hm?" Mordred looked at him.
"It's about your Flight Magic. I tried it, and also tried things like moving objects around… But I just have no idea how to go about it."
Mordred thought for a moment, before giving his reply, "I can't really explain it. I can naturally expel my Magic Power from any part of my body at will, so that's in large part why I can fly."
"Oh, so that's it…" Rudeus looked disappointed.
"You could learn the Magic Interrupt, but I'm not sure if you could learn how to fly like me. Magic Power expulsion is my unique ability."
"Okay, I get it…"
In truth, Mordred could still give Rudeus tips on how he could learn Telekinesis and Gravity Magic, but he simply didn't want to.
The secrets of Gravity Magic was something that he wanted to keep to himself. It was his trump card. Even if Rudeus learns it some day by himself, he might not be aware of the scientific principles and certain tricks that Mordred uses.
Following that, Mordred began to practice his Disturb Magic with Rudeus as a partner.
They would practice by pushing themselves to use a dual-interrupt to attempt shutting down two spells at once.
To make good use of this chance, Mordred continued practicing with Rudeus for a few hours straight.
During that time, Rudeus once casually asked, "Your Highness, what were you so busy with recently? Did you leave Roa?"
"I didn't leave Roa, but I've been busy with sword training."
"So you're a swordsman too?" Rudeus already noticed the sheathed sword on Mordred's body.
"Yeah."
"What's your rank?" Rudeus wanted to compare it to his own progress and Paul's.
"This, well… I'm Advanced rank in Water God style," Mordred said after consideration. In fact, his words weren't false. It is only that his combat strength as a warrior was far above this. He believed himself to be invincible under Emperor rank.
Rudeus asked, "What?… Really? How old are you?"
Mordred's reply had already blown away Rudeus's mind. He knew that Paul had reached Advanced rank at around 11-12 years old, but Mordred seemed younger than this. And he was also a Magician prodigy!
This prince was truly brimming with talent. Perhaps it was no wonder that he was so confident in succeeding his father as a king.
"I'm eight. Plus a couple months."
"Eight…" Rudeus was taken aback. This made him 3-4 years faster than Paul! Although 3 years didn't seem like much, when comparing their training time as children, it was a huge difference!
"Yes, I'm probably the youngest Advanced rank swordsman in history. It's again thanks to my Magic Power."
"Oh…" Rudeus had no idea how Magic Power was related to strength as a swordsman, but he suspected that swordsmen like Paul also used Mana to strengthen himself.
The problem is that Paul wasn't able to explain how he does this.
What Paul told him was limited to: as long as you kept training, you'll become stronger and will be able to do awesome things like your dad! He was such a simple guy.
As for what kind of training was needed exactly, what is battle Aura itself and how to use it, Rudeus had no clue. That's why he asked, "Um… I don't really understand it – what is Battle Aura?"
"Battle Aura…" Mordred looked at him. "It is a type of Magic Power. Different from normal Magic Power, it's built up in the body through training. If I had to explain it, it's like 'Strengthening Magic'."
"Oh." As Rudeus expected, Mordred was far more knowledgeable on the topic than an ignoramus like Paul. Rudeus asked curiously, "How is it used?"
"When using it, you initially just exercise the strength of your body, but at Advanced rank and above, I can compare it to compressing it tightly against your body in a layer… Or doing the same while also trying to inject Magic Power into your muscles."
"Ooh…" Rudeus was enlightened. After taking all this in, he asked, "So to build it up at first… It's all about training the body?"
"Yes."
"Phew." Rudeus let out a breath. Luckily, he was not wasting his time.
For his own training, he just did what Paul told him - which is sword swings and some bodyweight exercises to condition himself.
He did push-ups, sit-ups, squats and some running every day. Although he could not get to 100 yet, this workout routine did work for a certain manga character to make them extremely powerful, so it should also work for him.
After bidding Rudeus and Sylphy farewell, Mordred practiced some Lightning, Fire, Ice and Gravity Magic in the forest, before returning to Roa in the late afternoon.